yes surprisingly that makes sense... it would all work for Dumbledore to go to the Future...Dumbledore would go ahead, say a day, do what he wants, then timetravel back to the point right after he had just left, allowing him to live life as normal. Its extremely complex, but it could work.

~Albus

I must admit that this time travel thing confuses me so much, but when you think about it it makes sense and now knowing this, you may have convert me. it explains that dd is in fact rab, it could explain that dd meant to die, and that snape is actually on dd's side.

yeh i like the idea of the time travel thing, we have been introduced to it, so its not a complete shot in the dark, and with the reflection theory its actually pretty good, its just that in any story time travel is some what of the easy way out, and if jk thinks that we would consider it an easy way out i dont know if she'd use it again, but then again she could very easily write it so it just flows easily.

also could explain how dd actually got hurt while destroying a horcrux cause if part of him time travelled he wouldnt be as good a wizard although still awsome.

well i always thought that when he destroyed it the power inside it sort of exploded and then he tried fighting it off but it was too much, and thats when snape came in, but i dont know, im curious, how could time travel allow dumbledore to injure himself like that, do you have any theories to explain why he wouldnt be such a good wizard?

Well snuffalupagous, about your question:

So your saying DD would have sacrificed the lives of all the teachers and students?


QUOTE
yes, dd new malfoy was going to invade the castle that night, snape would have told him, and there was absolutely nothing dd could do to stop it.
remember in the beginning of the book snape made an unbreakable vow. this vow was to protect and help draco at all costs, well dd and snape were fighting later in the book, hagrid overheard this, is it possible that they were fighting because dd said that snape had to kill him, it was either snape or dd that was going to die that night. snape would have died because he didn't help draco. dd thought it was only fair to sacrifice himself.
so when draco let the de in that was dracos cue to go after dd, but what did draco do? stalled which meant that draco wasn't so sure about what he was doing, so when snape came to the tower, and saw that draco didn't do it yet, well snape did it. now lv is more lax without dd around therefore making him an easier target.


I dont really understand how that has to do with DD takeing the horcrux. But anyway wouldnt DD want to be at the school while this happend and not in a cave hundreds of miles away? And you keep saying that harry dose not know enough to have helped in the cave. and then you say that it is his friends that are supposed to teach him the rest on finding horcruxes.. I dont understand.

ok well to answer that dd had to show harry how to navigate through a guarded horcrux, and dd had to do it before he died. his friends are supposed to help guide harry, not physically, but mentally and mindfully. and harry may not know enough to have helped him through the rest of the horcruxes, he knows the cave and can now forget about it since the horcrux is gone as well as the fake.

And you probably didn't mean it, but that last post was pretty funny.

The horcux isnt gone though, its still somewhere needing to be found. And also your saying that besides help from ron and hermione harry alrady knows all he needs to know to find the rest of the horcruxes? and to



if DD did know about the DE attack then couldnt have done that on another night and been at hogwarts for the battle to insure everyones safety?

EDIT: oh thanks i thought i would add that in just to clear things up because at the end we were not makeing much sence to the topic

good question, but it would still look unrealistic wouldn't it? I mean that would make dd look senile, letting de in the castle while he was in it and if dd wasn't gone, the de never would have come. the de came only when dd was out of the castle, and dd wasn't sure how draco was going to do it, remember he had to ask draco how he got the de in and when draco said, fooled you didn't i dd agreed and just continued asking draco questions.

about the horcrux being gone or not, thats not concrete, the horcrux could be destroyed, whats throwing you off is the locket found in grimmauld place, which by the way we can't really tell for sure if thats the horcrux, now the reason for that is that the locket had no other description besides being heavy and they couldn't open it.

Finaly finaly finaly i see a point and i agree
That dose make sence, The DE came because draco knew DD wasnt at hogwarts. He had madam rosemerta under the Imperius curse so he knew DD was gone he knew when and where he was comming back. Because the whole point of attacking the castle was to kill DD... And to other matters, So you are saying that DD destroyed the horcrux and we now have 3 horcruxes gone?

Finally, Finally, Finally is right! but i don't know if there are now three horcruxes gone, but the problem with that is what do you mean by three, the locket and the diary are gone, but whats the third horcrux?

Unless i am much mistaken (and that is very well possable) wasnt the Marvolo's ring a horcrux. I may have read wrong (i havent read HBP in a few months) but i thought it was slytherns ring and LV used it as a horcrux... Oh man i have to look this up because im goingto feel like and idiot if the ring isnt a horcrux.

EDIT: I looked it up to make sure im not going insane and yes the ring was a horcrux.

No you're absolutely right. the ring is a horcrux. I can't belive I totally neglected that part. So then my answer is yes, three horcruxes are now destroyed and all harry has to find is the cup, snake, something of Ravenclaw or hufflepuff, and possibly harry himself

Im still not conviced though... Its just dosent add up. If DD took the horcrux, made the letter, and returned a fake locket just so he could come back with harry to get the locket back then go off and die. Then all the letter says...



It just dosent make sence...okay if DD did know he was going to die then their is that "I know I will be dead long before you read this" but thats it. The rest dosent add up. Exspecualy to help out harry in anyway. If DD did know we was going to come back with harry to get this "fake locket" then why evin write all the other stuff in the letter?

basically, to let harry know with what happened to the horcrux (which we really don't know exactly what happened. it was i who discovered your secret just reinforces that it was dd. it may not make sense now, well, there are others who do belive this theory, right?

ok i have a few questions...

when do you think that dumbledore first took the horcrux?

how does the note give harry any information?

and how does harry know that dumbledore actually got rid of the horcrux?


ok thats all i really have to say for now, ive just been reading the last posts and thats all i could think of as of now.

well, for the first question, dd took the real horcrux, before he brought harry to the cave, when is unclear at the moment, considering it could have been anytime from two years ago to and hour before harry went.

the second question, well we have been over and over this in different threads haven't we? the letters can stand for a code in which harry goes to hagrid and bill next.

the third question, well, just like dd trusts harry, harry trusts dd, does that make sense?

Out of all of the people in the order why hagrid and bill? I can think of a few better people to help find a horcrux. But one thing i dont understand is, how is harry supposed to know that he has to go to hagrid and bill? I just see so many problems with the DD, hagrid, bill theroy.

well, when you think about it, hagrid and bill fit the initials, and hagrid is probably dd's first choice to bring with him because of his giant blood, it can repel a lot of spells, as for bill, he is the only well not the only, but the only one that would make sense that starts with the letter b. otherwise theres bellatrix, and barty crouch.

he can trust dumbledore, yes, but RAB says he plans on getting rid of it, so its not sure.

two years? really dumbledore knew he would die that far in advance...

yeh i do not understand how harry will first realise that the I in the note really means we, and second how he will think of hagrid and bill, way to confusing


well in my opinion that is hardly reason for a theory, we could say it was ron, aragog, and buffalo bill, see the theory is good because the initials fit, but is the theory truly a good theory? im sorry i just cant see it being hagrid albus and bill, its to hard to work.

Okay hpalltheway evin though im haveing a blast with this conversation. I hate to admit it but i am going to contradict myself here and agree with you for one (only one ) second. I can understand the hagrid, bill thing for some reson. (i also find it funny that we came to this thread becuase we were getting off of the R.A.B. topic but we are right back there ) DD trusts Hagrid with his life (and being a hlaf giant helps im sure) and Bill is a curse breaker for gringotts so thats got to help out alot. Oh my god i am agreing with you what is this world comming to ... Kudos!

Yes those are qualities that could help, i do admit that, and i agree that it would make sense to have those to there, but then why write I, and if its to keep them from harms way, why right their initials at all, couldnt he have left harry another note, Im sorry but i really can not believe this theory as of now, its just the way i see it I guess, my way is not better or worse, but its just the way i see it, and as of now its what forms my theories, so yeh thats just my thoughts.

oh snuffalupagous, i'm so happy you see it. all that hard work certainly paid off!

hp6, you keep saying that rab says i in the letter, couldn't it be at all possible that dd just wanted to keep the other two out of it to keep them safe? lv is a dangerous person and if either bill or hagrid died, well that wouldn't be good to harry would it?

I do seem to be in the wrong thread at the wrong time but just saying what i believe hp6 also is saying that it dose make sence. but i just still dont think it could have been DD,

Ps. hey hpalltheway el barto is going to hate us becuase we went into this thread just to talk about stuff we should be saying in the one we left hehe.

If you look in the thread about RAB, you'll see it is not possible Bill is representing the B, and since we don't know any other relevant person with a B, the theory RAB standing for three different people just doesn't fit....

So I also think it wasn't Dumbledore who 'stole' the real horcrux, and definetly not on the night he was going to die... For the theory about knowing he was going that very night, with Malfoy letting in all those Death Eathers, I thought Dumbledore mentioned somewhere in their conversation he knew Malfoy was up to something, but didn't know when the plan actually would come in action.

well if he wrote i to protect the other two, well no i still dont understand this, he wrote I to protect the other two, but then wrote their initials? wouldnt it be easier to just exclude their intials because now maybe voldemort will kill everyone with the initials RAB, it just doesnt seem right to me

I suppose The Last Night of Dumbledore thread and the RAB thread are very similar, since they both happened the same night (the night Dumbledore died is the same night we learned about RAB). Only the RAB thread is mainly for discussing who he/she is (or what), and the possible scenarios. Yes, if there are certain scenarios that relate to the last night of Dumbledore, then its all good if you post them here. No hard feelings, right? What gets confusing is that, like I said, they're so related that you don't know which to post in. Its no big deal if you talk about something related in the RAB thread, or here about something else, but you should incorporate the specific topic into your post to make it relevent to that post (if that made sense).

With that said, I don't agree with your theory hpalltheway, but I respect it. hp6 is basically saying what I would say, so I won't bore you all with saying it again.

Here are a few other names that could relate to your theory. Afterall, Rubeus and Bill helped Albus, so perhaps these other R and B first named characters helped instead of them:

-Broderick Bode: He would've only helped a year ago or earlier (in Harry Potter terms) since he was killed. He was an unspeakable.

-Rufus Scrimgeour: I don't think he knows anything, unless he's just acting like he doesn't know anything. He was the Head of the Auror Department.

-Rita Skeeter: There to write things down (the note?)

I know they seem odd, but if Hagrid could help, and Bill, then why not one of these people (except Skeeter). Did you, hpalltheway, give a reason why Bill and Hagrid would help? Couldn't these people have just as much reasoning, except for Hagrid's case since he was much closer?

In my opinion, some things aren't adding up.
-did they know Dumbledore was going to die?
-wrote "RAB" to protect them, but why even write that at all then?
-the note is in singular form
-why go to the cave twice if he already had the locket the first time with the others (how could he have drank the potion twice?)? I don't think saying going there again to teach Harry a lesson is a good answer, or to give him experience. He could have shown him the memory, it would be much safer.
-If the note is intended for Harry, wouldn't writing RAB standing for three people throw Harry off, especially with the note in singular form? If it wasn't intended for him, he has it now, and must figure out who (or whom) RAB is anyway, right?
-does the timeline of Bill's involvement add up to the possibility (if both visits to the cave happened the same night) that he went?
-How would Hagrid fit on the boat? Wasn't only one of age wizard allowed across the lake, which would mean Bill wouldn't have been able to get to the island (Hagrid is a half-giant).

*Sorry, I was thinking of questions as I went along and didn't intend for it to get this long...

Well El Barto, i am going to answer each of those questions, and mind you this will get long. First I am going to say thank you for adding those 3 people to he list, i will add them to mine, i never thought of those guys.

Now for your first question, it was a couple of people that came up for reasons for the other two people were hagrid and bill.

from patronus:


and also, hagrid is half giant, could repel some spells, and wouldn't register in the boat because the boat measures magical ability, and since hagrid doesn't have any would fit quite nicely in there
someone else said that bill was a curse breaker for gringotts and the horcrux is in there, we know dd used it for the ss/ps.

Second question. they maybe didn't know dd was going to die at the time of getting the horcrux, but i think that eventually they did.

- they wrote RAB so to give harry a clue about where to find information about the horcrux.

-so the note is in singualr form? couldn't it have been written so that dd was protecting bill and hagrid? we wouldn't want them to die while they were holding something important to harry's quest would we?

-i don't think that dd drank the potion twice, that's where hagrid comes in, so the teach harry another lesson would still make sense.

-right, RAB is written in code form, so that in case lv found it, it would have been harder for lv to figure out who it is, lv would have figured out right away that it was regulus black, and considering he is dead, well, you can't kill someone twice can you?

-good question, i'll need some time to think about that.

-hagrid fit on the boat. like i said before the boat measures magical ability, and i wouldn't really consider hagrid to be a fully fledged wizard considering he has only had, what 3 years of wizard schooling? his powers definitely wouldn't register. if anything, dd sat on hagrids lap. i'm rethinking the bill going to the cave part of this, i still think that bill is still involved, but i think he is just mentioned because he knows where the package is.

if you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask, i don't mind long posts. and if i left anything out (i hope i got it all) just let me know, i'll be happy to answer or reanswer questions

Thanks for reanswering the questions, hpalltheway.


Harry would have to go to Bill and Hagrid, or whoever the other two were if it isn't them? How would he figure out it was them if the note is singular (sorry I keep bringing that up, but it would confuse anyone, I guess)?


What I'm trying to say, besides the singular thing, is that if he wanted to protect Bill and Hagrid, why would he write their first initial even it they were put together? Why not his own, or not put anything at all so Voldemort wouldn't know what to think of it?


How come Hagrid wasn't weakened (unless this happened a long time ago, and even then somebody would have noticed)? We don't know, though, if the potion can replenish itself. The theories about Regulus and Kreacher still have Kreacher going crazy, or changing (in his current state) because of the potion...


Is it safe to say that it would be hard for Harry to figure out too?

About the boat, I was thinking more of a physical sense. Can someone his size get into the boat without it sinking or filling with some water so as to provoke the inferi?

And Bill: He was sent there with Lupin and Tonks to patrol Hogwarts while Dumbledore and Harry were gone, and had a fight with Greyback where he got disfigured. It would have had to have happened before that, then we gotta question Hagrid's location in that space of time. Though the simple answer is that it happened a day or so earlier.

ok El Barto, here we go again.



your right on on it can get confusing, but we know hermoine is smart, she can figure out anything (she figured out the basilisk didn't she?)



well, that would just be too obvious wouldn't it. and if lv did find the note, i think lv knows that harry is pretty close to lv by now, lv would go straight to harry and finish him off before he could destroy his first horcrux.



oh, i'm sure hagrid was weakened a little bit, but not nearly as bad as dd. remember hagrid is a half giant, and if he can repel most spells, then i think the potion would render him incapable like dd.



yes, but thats where hermoine comes in.




well here's a quote in the boat on page 564 in the american version:







i'm assuming that these two things mean the same. well, the earliest it could have happened was an hour before harry and dd went to the cave, but like i said before, i don't think that bill went to the cave, his initial is mentioned in the note because the horcrux (he probably knows it as a package) resides with him at gringotts.

Yep, Hermione is smart! But how would she conclude that the letter is really about multiple people? The note itself is in singular form, so all she would have to go on is the initials to figure out if it was more than one person. How is she going to do that?


What is too obvious? Lord Voldemort knows Harry is close to him? I'll assume you meant Voldemort knows Harry is close to Dumbledore . So if Voldemort saw a note with no signiture he'd automatically go straight to Harry? If he saw the note with Dumbledore's initials he'd also go straight to Harry? How do you figure Voldemort will see the note in your theory if Harry was the one who was supposed to get it (for clues)? Do you think Dumbledore could have helped Harry out a little more instead of having him waste time trying to figure out who RAB is, and instead already know who RAB is and set out to destroy the Horcruxes?


You're right, Hagrid can repel most spells. But you said it yourself, the potion would render him incapable just like Dumbledore. How would Dumbledore get him out of the cave on his own like Harry did with him?

The boat will float on the water no matter how much the user(s) wiegh?

So Bill wasn't there, but he took the Horcrux for safe keeping, I get that part now. However, why was it taken for safe keeping? Dumbledore destoryed the ring, or rather the thing on the ring, as soon as possible once he learned what it really was, why store this Horcrux if he wanted to destroy it as soon as possible as well as evidenced from the note?

Well, El Barto, I think you just answered your own question, no one knew about the basilisk, but she is the one who figured it out! Besides, how am i supposed to know how hermoine thinks?



yes, i'm sure lv knows harry is close to dd, and if dd signed his own name with his own initial, lv would go straight to harry, since dd is dead. i think that the reason lv, would see the initials in the first place if he went back to the cave to check on them, or if he needed it, like I said, dd could have done this a long time ago, maybe before lv came back to power. I don't think dd had time to help harry out more, as he would be late for his own death.



sorry, that was a typo, i meant to say that it wouldn't render him incapable like dd. sorry again for the misunderstanding



in the words of bart "correctamundo"



I think dd wanted to give harry practice with destroyng a horcrux. one step at a time my dear el barto, one step at a time.

Anything else?

What I meant about Hermione is how is she going to figure out RAB means multiple people just by looking at the initials



So this happened a while back (your theory), and the night we know of in which Harry and Dumbledore went to get the Horcrux was really the fake one all the while the real one is stashed away in Gringotts where we aren't entirely sure which side the goblins are on?

What if he just showed Harry a memory of destroying the ring?

I've been questioning your theory too much and unless you want me to go on, I'll stop there. I'll respectfully agree to disagree!

by all means, if you don't understand something, just ask.

first question: hermoine always goes to the library, i am sure whe could find something. true, she might come up with regulus, but maybe she would realize that he is dead, and he can't tell them anything or help in anyway, i'm starting to think that harry might ask for hagrids help in finding the horcrux, and hagrid gives them the first clue right up front (remember this theory is still under some construction)

second question: good point with the goblins, i never truely thought about them before. well, if the horcrux was stashed a while ago, i don't think dd could have considered the goblins to rebel, besides i thought that the goblins were on our side because they were mad at lv for some reason i can't remember.

third question: another good question, like i said before, i don't think dd had time to show harry a memory of destroying the ring, if you recall, dd wasn't at school the majority of the time, and whenever he was, he was already busy doing the other lessons with harry.

What the? :

He had time to go to the cave for few hours but not to show him a memory?

I think the goblins would be mad at all wizards, good or bad, because of what happened during the Goblin Rebellion. I'm not entirely sure, but maybe back then it was the goblins against the wizards (since the Death Eaters and the Oredr weren't around).

Did anything else happen that night that seems out of place besides the RAB note that you would like to discuss?

uh, yeah, the only time he and harry could do something other than look at memories, i think that the cave is more important than the memory. besides, i don't think that dd and harry went there for a couple of hours, more like and hour and a half, how long did it take to read that chapter? for me 30 min, it wasn't that long, especially since the only thing that jkr shortened was the trip in the boat.

True, the gobblins were mad at wizards, but is that a reason to stop the working of a bank?



this is a question i should be asking you, i know what this theory is.

To me it seemed like it took place with a 1 and a half to two hour time frame, my opinion I suppose. Dumbledore himself said that he would be out of Hogwarts for a few hours. They could have stayed in Hogwarts and Dumbledore could have shown Harry how to destroy a Horcrux right then from his memory. You avoid the threat of death, and the Death Eaters coming in since Draco did his move when Dumbledore was gone, among other things. He could just show him ten minutes of himself destroying the Horcrux...all this seems too elaborate just to teach Harry how to destroy a Horcrux

I think JKR said at some point that its in a goblins nature to be around money or something like that (or maybe Hagrid said it).


Oh, I meant as a whole...anything else that happened, but if you want to discuss it concerning your theory thats fine with me...but I can't really think of anything at the moment

i guess the thing is, do we know that it takes ten minutes? it could take a half and hour or something for all we know. i guess thats just a matter of how you persieve something like that though.



i think that hagrid said that in the first book.

i think that the reasons for rab not being regulus, well would jkr really put something so obvious, i don't know, but i sure would be dissapointed if this were true.

The diary was destroyed relatively quickly.

If RAB turned out to be Regulus I must admit I wouldn't be surprised. I'd probably think something like "..............thats nice......". Are you sure Regulus is too obvious though? I think its more of the scenario, reasons, etc. about why RAB would do this, even if it is Regulus that would shock readers.

i know this has probly already been stated, but i feel dumbledore has fled hogwarts, thus meaning he faked his death. in OotP, bellatrix stated that to cast an unforgiveable curse, they have to mean it. and HBP mainly focused on non verbal spells, so i think he had told snape with occlumency to "kill him", while he cast another green spell, which made him fall out of the tower. i know, you are all probly thinking that "that cant be possible, cuz snape took the unbreakable vow" , but i feel he has not fulfilled it yet. i think he is still to help draco in doing something, for good or for worse. i think that dd will come back and help harry in the final battle. there are also these bits of evidence i have found:

when slughorn sang the song at hagrids, he mentioned in it that they would snap a powerful wizards wand ehn they died. where was dumbledores wand?

the avada kedavra spell does not fling its prey, it just makes them collapse

you never see dd's body at his funeral

thats it. you can either take it, or think it is the pointless ramblings of a nieve hp fan.

el barto, yes the diary was destroyed relatively quickly, but whos to say that the rest of the horcruxes are going to be as easy as that? think about it, the diary was made up of paper, the ring and the locket were both made of metal, now the only way i can think of to destroy metal is to put it in an incredibly hot fire, i don't know, but maybe there is a better, magical way of destroying it.

i do think rab is too obvious, i have been looking at this site for a year at least (just because i just joined doesn't mean i didn't know about it), but even then the theory was going around. it was too easy to figure out, my theory took quite a bit of thinking. and i'm curious as to what you mean by "scenario reasons"


breakingthesystem, i did come up with a similar theory (i can't remember if it was this thread or another one) but i did say it could be possible that snape and dd drank a polyjuice potion, but everyone said that dd wouldn't put a person in that kind of position, plus it was said that dd is not going to "pull a gandalf" and come back.

Beatingthesystem: I think occlumency/legilemency requires eye contact, and that didn’t occur on the tower. Also, in my opinion, when Snape gets that look on his face, I think he is thinking up past memories of his childhood that would fuel his anger to use the AK curse on Dumbledore. Good question about Dumbledore’s wand!

A lot of people think Dumbledore falling off the tower was to make Harry leave…because if Dumbledore was killed and stayed there, Harry would have as well to try and revive him…so to speak. Or, Snape could have used a non-verbal spell to push him off.

hpalltheway: Scenario as in...what happened, the events surrounding the person getting the Horcrux...know what I mean? About the ring, it wasn't the ring itself that was the Horcrux but the House Crest on it (there are pictures of it cracked down the middle). What if there is a magical way of extracting the soul, getting it out the way it got in...a reverse spell I suppose.

well, it might shock some readers, more like the ones who don't read these forum websites, (and i can almost see why) there might be some kind of spell to extract the horcrux, but harry didn't do that. he stabed the diary with the fang of the basilisk, i don't know though, there might be a more mature way of destroying a horcrux, plus why extract it? what would the difference between extracting the horcrux and destroyng the item the horcrux is in be?

I was just offering another alternative to destroying it if a furnace or something isn't available. Though I suppose using a spell to extract a Horcrux would be even harder to do.

What do you think about Dumbledore and Snape having a plan all along, if any?

well i think that it is entirely possible that snape and dd ahd a plan, there were some clues in the book that makes me think this, although they are npt all that obvious. for example, the night that hagrid overheard snape and dd were fighting, well that could be because dd wanted snape to kill him and snape wasn't all that happy to do it.

another example, dd said that he placed extra protection in the castle that night, wasn't it the order? they could have been there for two reasons, make sure that de don't enter the school, and to keep the students from entering the tower since they were pretty close to it anyway. i don;t know maybe i am thinking way too much.

No i dpn't think so. A switch is highly unlikely. The big boss said he was dead.

well i understand most of the logic on this thread and mainly i agree with Barto, but ive been reading lately, because i havent had anything real important to say, but this struck me as odd, maybe i misunderstood, most likely i have, but when you say this i get the impression that you think voldemort put the RAB letter in the locket, because thats the only way i can see no switch happening, is that what you meant, because if it is i find that is highly unlikely voldemort wouldnt put a letter like that in his horcrux.

Yeah i was wondering the same thing. It just dosent make sence. So your saying there was no switch. Soooo do you think the locket they found was a horcrux?

ok. this has been gone over a zillion times but.........when harry and dd fly back over school grounds, dd says something in another language as harrys broom shudders. this could easily be suspected as dd changing enchantments to allow them to fly in. I DONT BELIEVE that this would affect the enchantments keeping wizards from apparating on school grounds.those enchamntmnts have been on the school for ages as hermione poiints out repeatedly throughout the series.This means the DE's would just about have to flee through the grounds much like umbridge did at the end of ootp. The whole going back through the vanishing cabinets would be far more complicated since snape lead the way and didnt even know the DE's were coming, let alone how they got there. NOT TO MENTION, the darkness powder probably would make it much harder for them to have some incling of where exactly they came in ESPECIALLY since the door to the room of requirement most likely dissapppeared after they closed it since no 1 was in there for a period of time and it wasnt in use. NEXT. as for the topic of wether or not the swithc of lockets was pre or post-cave. i believe it was pre-cave. the idea of it being post-cave is exciting and fun to think of, but in my mind slightly ridiculous and not likely. These are just a couple of my thoughts on this thoroughly talked about subject.

I would like to think that dumbledore is not dead, i have come up with so many theories in my head of how he may still be alive. One that i came up with is that he made a horcrux of himself. maybe fawkes is acting as nagini did for LV. This would explain why fawkes left the grounds. He was going with dumbledore who was probably too weak. They were gunna go get dumbledore's horcrux so he could be revived. Then he would bide his time until it was safe to attack voldermort or save harry's life. I sooo hope dd is not dead.

as for the letting off of the spells, i think dumbledore let off the spells momentarily. He would not have left the castle unguarded. whether he was there or not. THis leads me to beleive that he let himself and harry in, but put them up so noone else could come. plus dd knew that draco wanted to kill him, and knew this would be the perfect time, it was planned too well for dd not to have planned it all along.

i think the locket was definitely a horcrux. Jo has a tendency to mention things that will have vital roles in the coming books.